You are here

Haitian Officials Reach Fragile Election Deal

Haiti’s President Michel Martelly and some of the country’s opposition parties have struck a deal to hold new elections by late this year, aimed at defusing a political crisis that had the nation on edge.
However, Haiti’s main opposition party, Fanmi Lavalas, was not part of Sunday’s last-minute agreement, which came shortly before the mandate of the sitting legislature in the impoverished Caribbean nation was to expire on Monday, Al-Jazeera wrote.
The leftist opposition party controls the majority of anti-government protesters and also key seats in parliament.
The agreement struck by the president and parts of the opposition could be a deal perhaps in name only. Protesters accused Martelly of tacitly allowing the legislature to expire in order to rule by decree, while he accuses the opposition of blocking an electoral law that would allow a vote.
But late on Sunday, just hours before the country marked the fifth anniversary of the earthquake that left some 300,000 people dead and devastated much of the capital, the president and some of the opposition politicians reached a long-term agreement.
The agreement states to have elections organized before the end of 2015 for two-thirds of the senate and deputies, as well as for president.